Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag atomic number
47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal. The metal occurs naturally
in its pure, free form (native silver), as an alloy with gold and other
metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver
is produced as a by-product of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining.

Color: As a result of the high and fairly uniform
reflectance in the visible range, silver is considered white, but if human
eyes were sensitive to a slightly shorter wavelength region, silver would
appear to have color.

Reflectance: For clean silver, high in the visible an
infrared but low in near-ultraviolet.

Emittance: Solid silver at 0.65
μm: extremely low and not
known accurately; values of 0.044
μm at 940 oC and 0.072
μm
at 980 oC have been observed for liquid silver. Other
experiments showed no discontinuity at the melting point of silver, the
emissivity being about 0.055 at about 700 oC.

Silver has long been
valued as a precious metal, and it is used to make ornaments, jewellery,
high-value tableware, utensils (hence the term silverware), and currency
coins. Today, silver metal is also used in electrical contacts and conductors,
in mirrors and in catalysis of chemical reactions. Its compounds are used in
photographic film and dilute silver nitrate solutions and other silver compounds
are used as disinfectants and microbiocides.